I have a strange problem with calendar entries, any help would be appreciated!
BACKGROUND:
We are in the middle of a PC lifecycle rollout where all users get new PC’s. Part of the rollout is to run Notes setup and then copy the user’s data directory back in. This is going fine.
However, sometime in December the Windows image for these pc’s changed. The “Automatically Observe Daylight Savings time” checkbox in Windows Date and time settings was unchecked for all pc’s from Decmber till now. We observe DST here, The Timezone is correct. A few secretaries noticed incorrect meeting times for meetings in April and may and reported the problem.
PROBLEM:
Repeating meetings that had already existed and take place in the DST range (April to Oct.) are now showing incorrect times, shifted forward one hour (When DST is unchecked). Checking DST will ‘repair’ the display for the existing meetings, but any meeting edited or created with the new PC (and DST setting), which is fine when the DST box is unchecked, shift backward an hour when DST is checked.
Essentially, I need to know how to write an agent to ‘fix’ the entires created or modified during the No DST period. I have looked at the StartTimeZone, EndTimeZone, StartDateTime and EndDateTime. The zone fields have different values but just replacing them with the correct value does not fix the problem. The DateTime fields have a list of values which shows EST & EDT for a good one and EST only for a bad one. What should I do to fix the values to EDT in the bad ones?
Subject: RE: DST and appointments, How to fix advice needed
We have about 200 users affected. The problem isn’t the number, it is the type. All of our executives were upgraded in early January. They have calendars booked through October and some all of the way through to this time next year. I’m talking every hour of every day. Also I would like to fix this as stealthily as possible.
Fixing calendars entries is the only option. Rebuilding these calendars would be too prone to error. What do I need to do to make the recent entires think they are in EDT? I would like to be able to run an agent, check DST on and have everything A-OK. I just need some insight on how to write that agent.
Subject: RE: DST and appointments, How to fix advice needed
well it would take a while to come up with a solution and I unfortunatley do not have any free time on my hands. You might try getting Lotus/IBM to assist you.
Subject: RE: DST and appointments, How to fix advice needed
I opened a ticket with Lotus and they pretty much shot down any thing that would programaticaly modify a repeating appt. Something to do with maintaining integrity across all calendars blah blah… Though I think I had a solution using a date-time array and the convert to zone method. In any event since it would break Lotus’ support of our calendars I could not proceed.
So if this happens to you, you must cancel and reschedule all affected meetings/appts. manually. This is especially great if this happens to your executives and you get to tell them to cancel and reschedule 70% of their calendar. At least I’m not the one getting fired for this. The DST checkbox is a critical setting for shops who don’t push down the time.